Pentium 4 1.8GHz. Review

Pentium 4 1.8GHz. Review - Page 1

You may have heard this before
but as the old saying goes, "image is everything".
When it comes to microprocessors, MHz./GHz. speeds are
typically what draw a consumer to a product. At this
stage of the game, Intel seems to have that part of the
routine down cold. Our latest lab test of the Pentium
4 Socket 423 Processor clocks in at 1.8GHz., a full 400MHz.
ahead of their rival (now nemesis) AMD.

Even though the numbers don't
lie, so to speak, clock speed only paints half the picture.
As such, in an effort to get you on the inside track, with
respect to first hand performance characteristics of Intel's
new Sugar Daddy, we'll give you the world's first
"official" benchmarks of the soon to be released Pentium 4
1.8GHz. Processor. All that and more in these pages to
follow.

Specifications of the Pentium 4 1.8GHz. Processor

Hyper Pipelined and
ready for action - Highlights

Available at speeds ranging from 1.30 to 1.80 GHz

Featuring the new Intel NetBurst micro-architecture

Supported by the Intel® 850 chipset

Fully compatible with existing Intel
Architecture-based software

Internet Streaming SIMD Extensions 2

Intel® MMX? media enhancement technology

Memory cacheability up to 4 GB of addressable memory
space and system memory scalability up to 64 GB of
physical memory

Support for uni-processor designs

Based upon Intel?s 0.18 micron manufacturing process

1.7 to 1.75 operating voltage range

We
won't go into too much detail with respect to the overall
architecture of the Pentium 4 and its i850 platform.
The product has been maturing for months now. If you
need a refresher course, please head over to
our Pentium 4 Bench Test article from November 2000.
That should get you up to speed.

This version of the Pentium 4
needs a tad more voltage than its 1.5GHz. little brother.
Specifically, 1.75V is what you'll need to keep things rock
stable.Another interesting variation to
the theme versus P4s that have hit the lab here in the past,
was the heat sink included. It seems Intel may be
moving away from
the copper base plate version we've seen on the 1.5G and
1.7G models. The all aluminum version we tested,
that was sent to us with this 1.8GHz. chip, did a nice
job of keeping this new high clock speed CPU cool under
pressure.

If I remember correctly, I think
I may have made a little wager that
Intel would be releasing next generation clock speeds for
the P4, almost at will. Well now, I don't think I was
too far from wrong. It seems like only yesterday
we were testing the 1.7GHz. P4.

Now, at the start of a new
calendar quarter, we see the 1.8GHz. CPU show up on our
doorsteps without notice. So, as any self respecting
technology addict would surmise, this 1.8GHz. speed step is
nice but what lies ahead? Let's see what Intel has in
store for us.

(courtesy of Intel Corp.)

Here we see the P4 cranking up
to 2GHz. some time in the second half of this year. We
realize this chart is a little too vague but the war for
Intel is tough in the trenches versus AMD. This is all that
we could pry loose in terms of this kind of info. On
this chart you can also see that the i845 (Brookdale)
chipset is to be introduce in the second half. This
solution will provide DDR and SDR support for the P4 (much
to the chagrin of RAMBUS) as well as the new Socket 478 form
factor. We've been told that SDR support will come
first in the second half of 2001 and DDR support in Q1 2002.

Well now, there's nothing like
living in the present. So then, let's fire up the
1.8GHz. Pentium 4 and take it for a spin.